Brian Breese (right) competitions secretary of ISSA discusses a point with that body's former general secretary Freddie Green. Both men were present at yesterday's press conference held at the JFF headquarters to announce the sponsorship of the 2001 schoolgirls football league. - Norman GrindleyTHE Captain's Bakery yesterday renewed its sponsorship of the schoolgirls football competition with the handing over of a cheque for $1m by managing director Captain Horace Burrell.
Burrell who is also the president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) handed the cheque over at a press conference held at the football headquaters to launch the 2001 competition. It is the second successive year that the Captain's Bakery will be sponsoring the competition as no other sponsors could be found.
"I felt it would be sad not to give the girls the same opportunity as the boys," Burrell said. He added that his company had to dig deep to facilitate this year's competition but that "it is a pleasure and honour to do so and I am pretty certain that a number of girls will demonstrate their skills and earn scholarships to study abroad."
The $1m will cover administrative costs, referees fees, medals, trophies and travel subsidies for rural teams travelling to the corporate area and corporate area teams going in the opposite direction. Schools, however, will have the opportunity to earn additional money for the teams under a scheme Burrell said was devised by the company's financial controller, Wayne Saulter.
Under this scheme schools which are able to sell 25 boxes of the Captains donuts or (12 1/2 dozens) each day will receive $5,000.00 each game.
In this year's competition, the first under the administration of the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association (ISSA) 47 teams, five more than last year, will take part. The teams are divided into seven groups of five and three groups of four. Of these 10 groups six are in the corporate area and four in the rural group.
The competition which kicks off on Monday, February 5 and ends on Saturday, March 31 will be run under the same eligibility rules as the male version according to ISSA president Clement Radcliffe. Competition will take place over five rounds.
